ďťżHypotheses, Scientific Evidence, and On Being Compared to an AIDS Denier
In todayâs Boston Globe (April 14), Dr. Dennis Rosen, a pediatric lung and sleep specialist at Childrenâs Hospital in Boston, reviews my new book,...
In Defense of Healthy Mania
It is important to distinguish, and not simply pathologize, experiences that are manic-like because they are time-honored states of mind associated with aspiration, ambition, and goal-achievement. The need to generate boundless energy, overtalk the issues to sustain single-minded focus and motivation, and have a somewhat grandiose vision of what can be accomplished, combined, can eventuate in a manic mix of tendencies necessary to bring higher-order goals to fruition.
Will Psychiatry’s Harmful Treatment of Our Children Bring About Its Eventual Demise?
The safety of our children is a sacred obligation we strive to preserve. Anything or anyone that harms them becomes the object of our...
âIs It Her Hormones?â A Case of Psychiatry Missing the Mark
The case of âBethâ depicts, almost innocently, the trials and tribulations of a well-adjusted, talented 15-year-old who developed depression, paranoia, panic attacks, and self-injurious and homicidal behavior, and âbipolar disorderâ after being prescribed antidepressants, and then antipsychotics. After Beth decided - on her own - to discontinue psychotropic medications in favor of hormone therapy, she remained free of psychiatric symptoms.
Different Forms of Childhood Adversity Related to Specific Psychosis Symptoms
In this monthâs issue of Psychological Medicine, researchers from Kingâs College London found evidence for associations between different types of childhood adversity and specific symptoms associated with psychosis. As current categorical approaches to psychosis and schizophrenia diagnoses come under increasing scrutiny, this study adds support to sociological and psychological theories and treatments.
Psychotropic Drugs and Children
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Psychotropic Drugs and Children
June 15, 2010
Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic, discusses the disturbing effects of psychotropic drugs...
I Want Change
Only two hours after we got home, Dan fearlessly told me of the suicide plan that he'd devised while in the hospital. He had all that time to think about it while nobody was listening. He'd lost his dignity, his identity and his place in society. He had lost the will to live.
Out-of-home Placements for Children Increase Odds of Psychiatric Issues
When controlling for social and family characteristics, separating children from parents into out-of-home care increases psychiatric issues, prescriptions, and criminal activity.
âToo Many PA Foster Children are on Psychiatric Medsâ
For Philly.com, staff writer Stacey Burling reports on the PolicyLab analysis of psychiatric drug use among Pennsylvania children on Medicaid. Â âMany children in foster...
FDA Approves Another Antipsychotic for Children
The FDA has approved the atypical antipsychotic Saphris (asenapine) for use in children on the basis of one trial.
Experts Decry Dangerous Use of Antipsychotics in Children
In a featured article for Psychiatric Services, psychiatrists from Dartmouth raise the alarm on the increasing numbers of children prescribed dangerous antipsychotic drugs. Despite the fact that data on the safety of long-term use of these drugs in this vulnerable population âdo not exist,â the rate of children and adolescents being prescribed antipsychotic drugs have continued to increase over the past fifteen years.
Many Foster Kids Are Still Being Prescribed Antipsychotic Drugs
Many experts expressed concern when the rate of antipsychotic prescriptions to children in foster care showed a rapid increase, peaking in 2008, and new recommendations and policies have tried to curb the use of these drugs. While the rate has plateaued, a new study points out that the ânew normalâ prescription levels are still dangerously high. The data reveals that almost one in ten children in foster care are currently being prescribed antipsychotic drugs with dangerous side-effects, many for diagnoses like âADHDâ and disruptive behavior.
Daughter of a Psychiatrist
Here I was, 15 years old and already in a long-term treatment facility. I was, on paper: crazy! This entire time, all the adults in my life had been speaking for me. I never felt like I was any of the things they said, but I went along with it. What else could I have done? Every time I rebelled, it only confirmed to my mother what she thought of me.
Minimal Evidence for Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder in Childhood
Researchers offer a critical take on the inclusion of the Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder in the DSM-V.
Nevada Legislation Aims to Curb Psychotropics in Foster Children
A touching article in the Las Vegas Sun follows one child from abandonment through foster placements, polypharmacy, suicidality, delinquency and homelessness to stability off...
âMisuse Of ADHD Drugs By Young Adults Drives Rise In ER Visitsâ
"It's no secret that stimulant medications such as Adderall that are prescribed to treat symptoms of ADHD are sometimes used as 'study drugs' aimed...
Book Review: “Overmedicated and Undertreated”
A former pharma executive has broken ranks with the industry in a new book by reporting how multiple psychiatrists, schools, and his desperate hopes pressed him to allow higher and higher doses of antipsychotic medications. The result: his 15-year-old son's death from Seroquel.
Madness Radio: Sharna Olfman on Medicating Children Diagnosed Bipolar
Professor Sharna Olfman has researched and written extensively about children in society, including education and sexuality, and her perspective on so-called bipolar disorder is...
To Make Adolescence Permanent, Just Label it âBipolar Disorderâ
When parents accept the bipolar label, something seems to click in their minds, and itâs in this instant that their kidâs life is forever ruined. Now they retrospectively view all the turmoil that began in puberty as due to permanent brain illness rather than normal, outgrowable adolescent issues.
Michael Samuel Bloom
by Chaya Grossberg
July 25, 2012
He also told me the shrinks were changing around his drugs and adding more. They added an antidepressant or two to the Lithium and increased doses and eventually he seemed to have very little life left in him. Our phone calls became trying for he was so down, practically dead sounding a lot of the time, and I felt unable to do anything or say anything to make a difference. To even try felt futile and I wondered if talking to me at all was becoming the burden of yet another person he couldn't connect with.
In the early years, he liked to think of us as being in the same boat, both mentally ill, since I'd also had a meltdown and I also am extremely sensitive and go through extreme states. But as the years went by, especially towards the end, I seemed to be in the ever growing âotherâ camp in his eyes, which meant I was yet another person who didn't get what it was like to be him. And at that point I can confirm I did not, and perhaps did not want to.
Neuroleptics for Children: Harvard’s Shame
Thirty years ago, the prescription of neuroleptic drugs to children under 14 years of age was almost unheard of. It was rare in adolescents, and even in adults was largely confined to individuals who had been given the label schizophrenic or bipolar. By 1993 about a quarter of 1% of the national childhood population were receiving antipsychotic prescriptions during office visits. The percentage for adolescents was about three quarters of 1%. By 2009, these figures had increased to 1.83% and 3.76% respectively. The devastating effects of these neurotoxic drugs are well known, and it is natural to wonder what forces might be driving this trend.
Update on the Association Between ADHD and Bipolar
Researchers from the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre of King's College's Institute of Psychiatry in London, publishing in the Journal of Affective...
Teen Brain Develops Differently in Bipolar Disorder, When Medicated
The brains of adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder develop differently than the brains of teens without the disorder, according to a study in Biological...
Childhood Bipolar Disorder, Deconstructed
Diagnosing children with juvenile or pediatric bipolar disorder is largely an American phenomenon. Do we actually have more âbipolarâ children in the United Statesâor are we simply labeling more of them as such? If it is ever fair to call a child âmanic,â isnât the childâs environment the direction in which we should look?
Pressuring Parents to Drug Children
Jim Gottstein on Pressuring Parents to Drug Children